Highway 3 construction dispute lingers

Highway 3 between Simcoe and Delhi will be given a makeover next summer provided the county and the province can agree on how to do the job.

Queen’s Park has offered two ideas, one in which the road is closed for a “long duration” to allow for the construction of a concrete highway, the other in which it is closed during off-peak hours at nights and on weekends to allow for an asphalt repaving.

In both cases, traffic would have to be detoured onto side roads, the Ministry of Transportation has told the county.

Town hall has rejected both proposals, saying it would like the work to be carried out in a similar fashion to what’s happened on Highway 24 north of Simcoe this summer.

In that case, the highway was narrowed to one lane in many places, allowing traffic to continue to flow without resorting to detours, said Eric D’Hondt, Norfolk’s general manager of public works.

If the county agreed to either Highway 3 proposal from the Ministry of Transportation, it would force traffic onto side roads that “are not good connections,” D’Hondt told council Tuesday night.

County officials, he added, “anticipate” the province’s short-term proposal will in fact extend “beyond weekends and nights.”

When the bridge over Big Creek in Delhi was rebuilt, the county suffered damage to its roads as heavy trucks used side streets, D’Hondt noted.

An open house with MTO and the public to discuss the proposals will be held on Wed., Sept. 12, 4 p.m.-8 p.m., at Talbot Gardens.